I like to think of myself as a pretty loving and accepting person. I try to see everyone as God's children and treat them accordingly. Likewise, the past two churches I've attended were and are very intentional on fostering a diverse congregation. After all, in Revelation 7:9 John paints a multi-ethnic picture of heaven:
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
And while I've become accustomed to being in atmospheres of diversity in my church and school, I found myself quite protective of my idea of what my family, (specifically my husband-to-be) should look like. In a conversation with my roommate she expressed how she was very open to experiencing another culture through whomever her husband would be. Me, on the other hand, gave her a quizzical side eye and flippantly replied, "hmm nahhh that's cool and all, but I wants me a Black man." *insert lip smack* Now here I am professing to love all people, yet my prayers to God were specifically for my husband to be Black.
Well, while reading a chapter for my sociology course, this particular passage shook me to my core:
Races are thought to be physically distinguishable populations that share a common ancestry. But despite the common belief, social scientists now reject the biological concept of race. Scientific examination of the human genome finds no genetic differences between the so-called races. Fossil and DNA evidence shows that humans are all one race, evolved in the last 100,000 years from the same small number of tribes that migrated out of Africa and colonized the world. (Baca Zinn, Eitzen, Wells, 2015, pg. 153)
FAM. Whet?? We are all one race? Literally everyone is the same race?? The naivety of my statement was almost comical after reading that. But to be honest, as Christians we intuitively already know this. God made one man and one woman and from that one pair the world was populated. So how have we become so convinced that there is a distinction between people that are a different color?? There is no doubt that people groups (of color especially) have experienced the disadvantages of this deeply ingrained ideology. However, I know that it is not homogeneous racial solidarity that will get these grievances heard or healed. It is spiritual solidarity.
When people of different experiences get together in the love of Christ, stories can get shared in safe places. People are heard and presumptions fade. For instance, in the life group that I attend, there is only one White woman. We instantly clicked because she has the. most. beautiful and loving spirit and she's also a writer. More interestingly, she has 5 adoptive children of color. FIVE. Unknowingly I found myself questioning her motives for adopting only Black/biracial children until she shared her story:
She and her husband had tried multiple times to get pregnant, and despite the fact that neither of them had medical/health complications, they had been unable to do so. After praying, they decided that fertilization treatments were not the way they should go. Instead they chose to adopt. When presented with the checklist of characteristics they would be willing to accept of their potential children, they left everything open: special needs, race, difficult personality, etc. Their caseworker informed them that by leaving the race option open, the chances of them getting a White child would be slim to none (since there's disproportionately more Black children who need families). They were perfectly fine with that. (There's more details to the story but I'll stop there)
Wow. Hearing her story shattered all of my assumptions. The fact of the matter is that God put that family together. Seeing the fierce love she has for her children made my previous proclamations about my husband-to-be seem completely foolish. Without the intentional diversity in my church, I may not have otherwise been connected to this radiant group of people!
So if God is breaking down barriers in the church, who am I to erect them in my idea of family??
References
Baca Zinn, M., Eitzen, D.S, & Wells B. (2015). Class, race, and gender. In Diversity in families.
(p. 153). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson